Custom Built Software

I worked for 2 companies in the Philippines selling off-the-shelf accounting softwares which markets them to both small and big companies. We had difficulty selling them. The usual complaints from the companies we were selling them is that the off-the-shelf softwares we were selling does not conform to their company accounting processes and were also expensive...

The Negatives of Off-The-Shelf Softwares

Even the sales representatives of both companies I have worked for says that for their respective softwares to work in the companies they are selling to the companies need to change their accounting processes and not the other way around where the softwares being sold adapted to the needs of the companies.

They also complained that the prices of the off-the-shelf software does not scale. They are sold in license form. This means that instead of paying a one-off price for the entire software system for the entire company they have to pay for each new software user and for each additional part of the software system.

The companies all commented to us that instead of buying these off-the-shelf softwares from us they can get a better deal developing the software in-house or hiring contract developers to build them the softwares according to their specifications.

This happened in the Philippines where the cost of hiring programmers are relatively cheap but I have seen programmers in Australia who are immigrants who charge similar cheap rates to do the same programming jobs.

This is because programming skills are transferable from one country to another and a programmer can charge as cheap a rate for doing similar jobs in different countries. This is the reason why there are now many programming jobs being outsourced overseas to countries where the cost of labor is much cheaper.

Off-The-Shelf Software Has Its Purpose

So are off-the shelf softwares really not suited for companies? The answer is “NOT AT ALL”. Off-the-shelf softwares are best suited when the tasks they automate are already industry standard. I worked in logistics in Australia and have the chance to use a software that is one of the industry standard in this country. The logistics process is so similar in many companies there that an off-the-shelf software worked for most of them.

How to get in the Business

The beginner businessman who wants to market off-the-shelf software can begin by creating a modular custom built software for one company. After this they can sell this same software to another company but with alterations to accommodate the unique processes of the new company.

They make the software more modular with each passing client until the software is so modular that it can be classified as an off-the-shelf software. This is how off-the-shelf softwares are created.

You can take my advise to learn at the very least the C, PHP, HTML and CSS programming language because they are popular languages and have been around for such a long time. They comprise a lot of the softwares and websites we have today. You will most likely have a lot of potential clients for a long time.

Do not forget also to learn a lot or even master office productivity suites like Microsoft Office most especially the spreadsheet application Excel. These softwares may not need a lot of programming skills but you would be surprised at the number of people making good money helping other people improve their skills with these softwares.

Conclusion

We are living in an age when software is becoming integral to all facets of our life. We use it for everyday living, our company work and even to run our farms. Although software applications are getting bigger and integrate more functionalities they would always fail to fill the very specific needs of many people. This is where you come in to make these softwares address the specific needs of these people.